This invention relates to a compact telephone directory system that integrates a subscriber's telephone with an on-line telephone directory database system that is connected to the subscriber's telephone. The firmware for the telephone directory database system is incorporated into the telephone system, whether as part of the telephone, or as an add-on device that integrates with the telephone. The subscriber's on-line telephone directory is maintained by a central telephone directory service provider.
The telephone directory database system is effectively an electronically stored equivalent of a telephone book. The telephone directory database can, for example, store local residential directories, local business directories, local and federal government directories, and a user specific directory. The directory database can be configured to store other areas' residential, and/or business directories, and/or local government directories. The only limitation to the number of various directories that can be stored, is the limitation of hardware memory that current art supports. Storage technology supports increasingly larger volumes of data. For example IBM announced a new method, that exploits giant magneto-resistance technology, to store and retrieve data from magnetic disks at a rate of 30 times more than today's disks allow ("An Advanced Technology To Read Data", New York Times August 1992). The trend to move towards on-line telephone directories can be seen in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,377 to Baner et al. teaches a communications terminal that enables the user to create and to manage a personal telephone directory.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,582 to D'Agosto III et al. teaches another method and apparatus to create and store telephone directory listings.
Both of these patents require the user to manually update the directory listings if they change. In any given community the number of changes in both residential and business telephone directory listings can change quite considerably during the year. These changes are reflected in the frequency of the re-issuing of telephone books to all telephone subscribers. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,899,377 and 4,800,582 do not provide an easy method for updating a large directory listing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,206 to Padden et al. teaches a system that uses automatic speech recognition to provide telephone directory assistance, without the aid of an operator.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,894 to Darden teaches a central telephone directory system that provides a subscriber with a personal electronic directory. This system is similar in principal to a number of hand-held personal digital organizers (PDOs) that are currently available. For example the "Wizard" from Sharp Corporation and the "Organizer PS660" from Texas Instruments. The primary difference between these devices and the '894 is the method of interaction, i.e. the '894 is a central on-line transaction database system that is accessed via the Common Carrier Telecommunications Switching Network (CCTSN) and a DTMF ("touch-tone") telephone, whereas the PDOs do not require a DTMF telephone to access the subscriber's personal directory listing.
Bell Atlantic is currently offering a system that stores telephone directories on CD-ROM and requires a CD-I player from Philips ("Phone company calls time on paper directories", New Scientist, Jun. 26, 1993). The Bell Atlantic CD-ROM stores 1.2 million residential, 0.4 million business numbers and 1000 color video advertisements. Updating of the CD-ROM requires a new CD-ROM to be shipped to the subscriber, i.e. similar to the way today's telephone books are updated.
The current invention recognizes that such prior telephone directory inventions have certain limitations that the current invention proposes to overcome.